Theaterjournale.at – Platform for inter-institutional research on German-language theatre journals and almanacs from 1750 to 1918.

Theatrical journals and almanacs were an integral part of 19th century theatre life and are an essential source for theatre research:

Universal theatre almanacs document German-language theatre companies and staff in over 3,600 international cities and towns. The information was reported by the respective directors to an editorial staff; the almanacs and yearbooks were distributed nationwide and generally were published over a longer period.

Local theatre journals review the past season of a venue and are often the sole source for the repertory and staff of a theatre company. They were generally published by the prompter as a supplementary income and were intended as s souvenir for the local audiences, often containing poems, anecdotes or couplets.

Since the 1990s, Paul S. Ulrich, a theater scholar and librarian in Berlin, has tracked down, collected and cataloged over 6,300 journals and 300 almanacs in the collections of more than 360 libraries, archives, museums and private collections worldwide.

Together with the Don Juan Archiv Wien which makes the bibliographic data available in this online catalog and makes this imposing collection of originals and reproductions available for the digital archive of the project "Theaterpublizistik digital".
In addition, Paul S. Ulrich's documentation is being published in the series Topography and Repertoire of the Theatre by Hollitzer Verlag. Volume 1 of the series focusses on the Viennese theatres (1752-1918); volumes on Czechia, Southeastern Europe and the Americas are being prepared - preprints can be consulted at Don Juan Archiv Wien.